Air France Pulls A380s From Singapore to Put on Shanghai Route

Air France will begin serving Shanghai three times weekly with Airbus SAS double-decker A380s, taking superjumbos off its Paris-to-Singapore line for use on the China route.

Air France serves Singapore seven times weekly, currently four times weekly with A380s and three times a week with Boeing 777-300s. All Singapore flights will now use the smaller Boeing plane, said Ulli Gendrot, a spokeswoman for the airline in Paris.

“Air France-KLM’s policy is to ensure optimum use of its planes in adapting its offer to take into account demand and market context,” Gendrot said in an e-mail.

Air France, (AF) a unit of Air France KLM Group, won’t be the only carrier flying the superjumbo to Shanghai. Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA), which already flies A340s daily to Shanghai, will add five weekly Frankfurt-Shanghai services with the A380 from September.

Air France’s A380s flying to Singapore seat 516, compared with 303 for the Boeing 777-300s, the airline said.